A curious geopolitical video game developer arms race has entered the next stage with a group of Iranian students unveiling a game that depicts the rescuing of Iranian nuclear scientists from the clutches of US and Israeli troops.

Considered by many to once upon a time represent the epitome of clubbing culture, the Ministry of Sound has launched its latest digital music player, pitching it against the epitome of MP3 gadgets, the iPod.

'What if,' said a friend down the pub the other day, when the conversation was circling uneasily for take off at that tricky third round mark, 'what if those old Greek philosophers - you know, the ones that used to sit around all day gassing - what if they had had the benefit of modern social website software, like Facebook? Would it have made a difference to Western civilisation?'

US researchers have isolated a compound in turmeric - commonly used in the UK's national dish chicken tikka masala and other more deadly curry concoctions - which "may help stimulate immune system cells that gobble up the brain-clogging proteins that mark Alzheimer's disease", Reuters reports.

Iowa State Fair has jumped firmly on the JK Rowling bandwagon in the run-up to this week's release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by announcing an audacious butter sculpture of the boy wizard, the Des Moines Register reports.

Considering the technical complexity of modern commercial aircraft and the operational complexities of running any airline service, it may seem surprising - especially to anyone steeped in the ways of business and/or operational automation - to consider the level to which a commitment to paper is maintained.

The Chinese government's weather-control programme, more accustomed to bringing down rains on parched crops, has announced a new and ambitious mission. The People's Republic is due to host the Summer Olympics next year, and if the weather dares to defy the commies it will be brought into line by force.

Apple will release a second-generation, lower cost iPhone in September for an iPod-like price of $249-299 - if a Chinese-language newspaper report citing Taiwanese industry moles is to be believed, that is.

Residents downstream of China's controversial Three Gorges Dam in Hunan province have responded in traditional fashion to a plague of two billion rats forced into farmland by rising water levels - by offering them to restaurants in neighbouring Guangdong province, the home of "if it's edible, we'll eat it" Cantonese cuisine.

Apple's online AppleStore - it's US incarnation, at least - has temporarily shut its doors to customers pending an update. This typically happens when the Mac maker's just about to announce new products.

US negotiators in Brussels expect to reach agreement with the European Union within a week regarding cooperative use of the American Global Positioning System (GPS) and the EU's proposed Galileo sat-nav constellations.

The Forum Nokia Open C Challenge, which offers $20,000 in prizes for the best application developed using Nokia's Open C libraries for Series 60 programming, along with POSIX for the Symbian bits, is now open to registrations.

Sometimes you suddenly come to your senses and ask yourself what in the world you are doing. This happened to me today, as I was taking pictures of a bikini-clad beauty who was brandishing a mobile phone while standing up to her knees in a swimming pool on the roof of a nine-storey building in central Tokyo.

Romanian traffic cops in the seaside town of Constanta were rather surprised to discover that the driver of a BMW they pulled for zigzagging across the road had no licence, no hands, no clothes, and was figuratively legless, evz.ro reports.

Intel is getting ready to move to a new generation of processors on a 45nm fabrication process, but that hasn't stopped it from squeezing some more performance out of its existing, 65nm chips. So, ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the 3GHz Core 2 Extreme QX6850 with the chip giant's brand new 1333MHz frontside bus.

It may not be the most attractive portable device on the market, but the Linux-based Pepper Pad 3 internet tablet has been given a technical makeover that includes faster Wi-Fi connectivity and a much needed slimmer body.

Earlier this month, Universal Music Group (UMG) - the world's largest record company with acts like U2 and Jay-Z - decided not to renew its contract with Apple's iTunes music store. Universal will continue to supply iTunes its vast catalogue but may cancel that supply at any time. In the company's own words, "Universal Music Group will now market its music to iTunes in an 'at will' capacity, as it does with its other retail partners."

NEC and Stratus promised you new, beefy fault tolerant servers would ship in June. But the boxes ended up shipping in July. We'll forgive the vendors a wee, one-month lapse, especially since they've tossed out some new, low-end additions as well.

With his opening keynote at iTV Con, a trade conference dedicated to, yes, internet television, Google’s head of boob tube technology Vincent Dureau told industry players and reporters that traditional television is pretty close to dead. Of course, he’s confident that the latest internet technologies can drive a new breed of TV to unprecedented heights. No one was surprised.

Yahoo! today reported a slight drop in quarterly profits from last year, but a figure in line with previously lowered expectations. The company's second quarter results are the first dose of earnings to arrive since co-founder Jerry Yang replaced Terry Semel as CEO.

Strong notebook and server chip sales carried Intel to a second quarter that neared the high end of previous forecasts. Investors, however, seemed unmoved by the results, as Intel noted strong pricing competition in the desktop market and a reliance on cost-cutting measures to gloss its results.